Important: RC means:
This is a Release Candidate!
It still can have issues

Please read this initial document while you do your testing!

Dear customers

We finally have come to the end of the development phase for Avastar 2.0. And now we prepare the Avastar-2 Release.

Please read below how you can actually help us to verify the tool works as intended and find remaining bugs.

Why Feedback?

We expect that things are rough-going initially. It may even be so that things are broken which were working before. That’s why we ask you to report any issues (see below) so we can polish the tools and make things more user friendly and more robust before we ship the product.

Please be helpful and give us feedback on anything that you find strange, confusing or not working for you.

Testing Avastar 2.0-RC

Please make sure your read the section about the Update Tool (see below) as it contains some important advise!

List of first testers:

Aki Shichiroji

Eleanora Newell

Etheria Parrot

Fizz Savira

KokaiNe666

Manwa Pastorelli

Medhue Simoni

Shnurui Troughton

Selina Anatra

Pirschjaeger Fassbinder

Siddean Monroe

Tapple Gao

Teager

Tornleaf

The Rollout Plan

Please note: The plan can change at any time if we discover serious issues which make the usage of the tool unreliable or impossible.

Dec-31-2016: Core team (2.0-24)

Jan-01-2017: first 5 customers (2.0-24)

Jan-06-2017: 10 customers (2.0-25/28)

Jan-19-2017: ticket owners (2.0-28/…/33)

Feb-21-2017: RC Release Candidates (2.0-39/45)

Apr-2017: Release with documentation (2.1)

Green: Finished Orange: currently ongoing

Who can test?

How to become a Tester?

Just download the Release candidate, install it and go working with it. If you find anything odd, not working, disturbing, missing… then feel free to

Where is the Test version?

Note: Everybody who has purchased Avastar since November-2014 has access to the Software!

(1):We expect your feedback! Please help us to find bugs.(2): The release candidate installs with the version number Avastar-2.0-45

Note:Your particular issue might possibly not (yet) be resolved in Avastar-2.0 or Avastar might have changed things such that your issue no longer applies. Or your Issues might have been overlooked. If you find such a situations, then please add a small remark to your ticket(s) so we know you are still interested in the broken (or newly suggested) feature.

Your minimum Feedback…

Close your ticket when your issue is resolved

Or add a the following comment to your existing ticket:Avastar-2.0 feature still missing/brokenpossibly add some more details if you like.

Feel free to add more test reports but please read below first.

Organize your Testing

We recommend that you follow the guide below. This seems to be a good way to cover the most important parts of Avastar. However, of course you are free to organize your testing in whichever way you like. We only ask you for some feedback.

This document is the preparation arena for the final documentation at avastar.online. So you will find this page to change frequently. If you have issues, then first check below for any updates.

One issue at a time …

Please try to first see if your tickets are resolved. Then feel free to add new tickets if you find anything else that is broken. But please…

Create separate tickets for each issue that you like to report.

This makes it much easier for us to work on the tickets. If several issues happen on the same blend file, then please either add this blend file to each ticket, or add a link to the ticket where we can find the uploaded blend file.

How to organize your tests

Prepare for testing

Most important: While it is very unlikely to happen, there is still a risk that you break your data during testing. So please avoid panic and only use copies of your production files for testing.

Even More important: Read this document at least once before you start testing.

Download the test version just like a regular update (as soon as it becomes available).

Test 1 – Installation

Just check if you step into any issues when installing or upgrading the Tool on your computer. If you are curious try to break the installation and report to us how you managed to do the damage.

Please report issues immediately, we will take care.

Important: Sometimes Avastar can not be enabled right after updating. The usual way to fix that is by saving the user preferences, then restart Blender. This has always fixed the issues. However: Please report if this happens to you!

Test 2 – Look Around

There is no recommended way to step through Avastar. You need to be at least a bit familiar with older versions and you need to be familiar with Blender. Only then you can do reasonable testing.

We have added a lot of information to the tool tips. This is meant as a mini documentation right below your finger tips. Browse over the tools and see if the tool tips make sense to you.

Check if the known tools still work

Create a character

Add attachments

Play with the sliders

Edit the skeleton

See what break (report!)

Test Animation exporting

Test Animation Import

Look at the Fitting Panel

Check bind pose support

Please concentrate first on the functions that you know. If you never before touched a particular Avastar tool, just leave it alone for the moment.

Please report

Confusing Tool tips

Missing Information in Tool Tips

Wrong or broken information in Tool Tips (also typos)

Note: Tool Tips are no replacement for the full Documentation. We do not yet have the full documentation available.

Further down you find a brief introduction chapter that explains the most important changes to previous versions of Avastar. You might want to read that chapter first before you proceed from here.

Test 3 – The Settings Panel

We have added a “Settings” panel that allows to configure the complexity of the user interface. This panel is meant to make your life easier. However we still need to optimize it a bit. It does not yet cover all Avastar functions. Please report if you think something belongs into a different level. Check it out in the Tool Shelf (in the Avastar vertical tab)

Test 4 – First steps using the tools

Do some simple stuff, like creating a new Avastar, create an animation, add attachments, check the sliders, whatever comes into your mind . But keep it easy for now.

Test 5 – Update your project(s)

This is the first critical step. We have put a lot of work into making this going smooth and easy. But we know we can not foresee all possible cases. You find a brief description of The Update Tool further down in this document.

Please report if anything looks odd to you. Also some of you have reported issues with the update tool. So for you Step 5 and Step 6 are the same thing…

Test 6 – Your particular issue

Check if your particular issue has been fixed. If you find it works now for you, then please just close the ticket. No need to add any comments in that case!

If it is still broken, then please add a comment to the ticket: “not fixed in avastar 2.0“

Test 6 – Stress test

Try to break the tools. Right now we are sure its easy to break things. But every report we can get will allow us to make the tool more robust.

Note: Please open a new ticket for any failure that you find.

Your Final report

If you want to give us some more remarks, then please feel free to add your personal comments right into the comment section of this document.

If you like you also can open a new ticket with your remarks. In that case please add to the ticket title:

Notes on Avastar-2.0: …

New and changed features

In the following chapters we collect brief information about new features and changes. These chapters are not in a particular order and we will add more information as time goes by. There is no need to read all the details here. Feel free to just pick the information that you need.

User Settings Panel (new)

We have added 4 User interface configurations for Basics usage, Advanced usage, Expert usage, and Experimental features which are not meant to be used unless for testing purposes.

The higher the skill level is, the more buttons get uncovered in the user interface. Of course the highest level is “Experimental”.

Please let us know:

Is this system good enough?

What you personally like to find in each of the levels?

Do you have ideas for a different way to organize the user interface?

Tip:If you are missing a button, then you might want to check if you are in the right complexity level.

Rig Preset Buttons now in Settings panel (change)

We felt like the Rig preset Buttons should not be placed in the Bone display panel. We moved the buttons to the Settings Panel as we believe this is the more natural location. Please see the image above to locate the Panel Presets section.

Weightmap Cleaner (change)

The SL Rig contains about 150 Bones, but because of some technical constraints it is not possible to have more then 110 weighted bones in a single Mesh. So when your one Mesh character uses all available bones for weighting it no longer can imported to SL.

However it is possible to cut your mesh object into pieces and take care that each piece is weighted to no more than 110 Bones. Then you can export the parts all together and the SL Importer is happy. But there is a caveat:

When you separate your object into pieces, then the number of weightmaps in the parts does not necessarily shrink. You might instead end with a subset of empty weight maps. So you have to do some cleanup after splitting your object into parts.

Here is where the Weightmap Cleaner (formerly named Remove Groups ) comes into play:

Split your mesh object into convenient pieces (typically it is a good idea to split the character into a head mesh and a body mesh)

go to Object mode

Select all Mesh parts of the character

Open the Tool Shelf

and locate the Avastar Tool panel

Locate the Weigt Tools

Take care to enable the small icon at the right side of the Clean weightmaps Tools

Now call the Clean Weightmaps tool

At the end each piece of the character contains only the minimal set of necessary weightmaps.

Where is Alter to Restpose? (change)

Short answer: it has been replaced by the new Bind Pose support (see below)

Long answer: We now support true Pose Binding, see below. If you still want to use the alter to restpose tool, then you find it when you enable the “Experimental” Preset in the Settings panel (see above).

Where is the Collada Panel? (change)

In previous versions of Avastar the Collada Exporter could be called either directly from the Tool Shelf, or from the Blender Top Menu by following

File -> Export -> Collada (Avastar)

We have decided to remove the Export Panel from the Tool Shelf to make the tool shelf less cluttered with Buttons and to make Avastar more conforming to how things are organized in Blender. So, using the File Menu is the new way to go.

But since for some workflows the Export panel in the Tool Shelf can be beneficial, we have added a way to enable the panel again for convenience:

Open The Add-ons Tab in User preferences

Open the Avastar Addon Panel

Locate the Preferences section

There you find a Panel Visibility subsection where you can enable the display of the Collada Panel (see image)

I do not need the Appearance Sliders…

You now can fully Disable the Appearance Sliders in 2 ways.

The Appearance Panel has now a Panel option for enabling the Panel

In the Avastar Add-ons Preferences (see previous Toggle Tab) you can now permanently disable the exposure of the Appearance Panel. This may be interesting when you never touch the Appearance sliders

Basics of Bind poses (new)

The Bind Pose support in Avastar is the by far most advanced function we ever added to the tool. This feature allows Avastar to work much better (more precise) with Rigs and Meshes that have originally been created with Maya or other Autodesk products.

But you should not worry, we have taken care that this feature can be used without effort and we made sure to keep all the ugly calculations away from you.

Understanding Bind poses

What is it?

You may already know that the SL Avatar uses the T-Pose as its Restpose. Note: The Restpose is the pose where all deforming bones do not influence the bound meshes. ( ALT-R, ALT-G, ALT-S ) This becomes very important further down, so please memorize this!

While the T-pose has its advantages, there are a couple of issues with it, especially when you create clothes which are meant to be used for example with the default stand pose (or whatever).

Because of this some creators have decided to not use the T pose as their default pose. But the SL Avatar does not support anything else than the T_Pose. So, how to handle this situation? We will see this shortly, but first …

The SL T-Pose

What is a Pose after all?

In simple terms: We can Split any bone arrangement of the Skeleton into its restpose plus a transformation (translation, rotation, scale) for each bone. The set of transformations (one per bone) is also named Pose. For example The image aside defines an A pose by rotating the shoulder bones by 45 degree against the T Pose.

But remember what i wrote above: In restpose the bones do not influence the meshes. However, in our example we have a pose that is different from the restpose. So it influences the meshes. In fact you see the avatar arms bend into A pose as expected…

An rig in A Pose

What is the problem?

Lets pretend for a moment that we have a character mesh that was made for A Pose but is not yet bound to a rig. We now want to bind this mesh to our Rig. So apparently the mesh matches perfectly to the rig when the rig is in A pose. So binding should be easy and straight forward. But …

Binding a mesh to A Pose gives headache

As soon as we bind the mesh to the Rig, the Binding tool assumes that we bind to the Restpose, and then after binding is done, something like this happens:

The reason for this is more or less obvious: That is: Before binding:

The mesh is in A pose

The current Rig Pose is also the A pose

But the Rig Restpose is the T pose.

The bind process ignores the current pose of the rig, instead it rigs the mesh to the T-Pose but with its arms down.

Now remind: The restpose is where the influence to the mesh is zero. Because of this in Restpose the mesh has its arms down, while the Rig has its arm bones pointing straight, so there is a rotation of 45 degree between the arms and the rig in restpose.

Finally when the rig is placed back into the A Pose, then the Mesh follows, and thus it bends the already bent arms by another 45 degree which results in the arms getting an additional rotation of 45 degree and hence they now point downward in our case (2* 45 degree = 90 Degree)

So what we have to do in this case is: We have to tell the binding process that it should use the bind pose as its reference and not the restpose. And that is the major problem in Blender: Blender does not support Bind poses. Or more accurate:

In Blender the Restpose and the Bindpose are always identical

Note: Other tools like Maya for example do not have this limitation. So Maya users can happily instruct the Bind process to use an arbitrary pose as the Bind pose regardless of what restpose the rig has.

How did we solve this?

We use a very very nasty trick here. Since Blender always needs to have the bindpose identical to the restpose,

We either need to bend the mesh into A pose before binding (that is what we did before)

Or we have to modify (edit) the Rig into A pose (that is what we do now). And you do this in the Posing Panel (see image)

Working with Bind Poses (new)

Short instructions to convert a rig:

Select the Rig in Pose mode

Adjust the rig into your favorite Pose.
In our case this is the A-Pose
Please use only the green Control bones unless you know exactly the implications of editing the other bones of the Rig!

Open the Posing Panel in the Tool Shelf

Take care that the icon for generating joint offsets for bone tails is enabled (see image)

Click the Convert to Bind Pose Button

When you now open the Rig in Edit mode, then you see the Restpose has changed.

The cool thing is that from here on Avastar manages all the rest for you…

Note: You can enter pose mode at any time, modify the pose to your likes. As soon as you click on the Convert to Bind Pose Button, all settings are updated accordingly.

Technically the Convert to Bind Pose button uses the current pose as the new Blender Restpose. But Avastar knows how to convert this modified rig back into an SL compatible T Pose rig.

You just use this rig as before, attach your meshes as before, do your weight painting as before, etc. Only now you no longer work with a T posed rig, but with a rig that uses your optimal pose (the A Pose in our example) as its Restpose.

Bind Pose vs. Joint offsets

In the previous chapter we have shown a method for a super easy way to convert an arbitrary pose into a new restpose for the Avastar Rig. Now we have 2 ways to get our rig transferred to Second Life.

Transfer with Bind Pose

Transfer with Joint Offsets

Lets see what we get from each method and when we will use it best:

Transfer with Joint Offsets

In this case you transfer all bone edits to Second Life. So the Rig in SL changes its Restpose just like the Rig in Blender changed its Restpose.

Actually this is the default that you have been using all the time since day one of Avastar Meshes. In fact exporting your rig and mesh with joint offsets is as simple as before.

To Memorize:

Ensure that

During export from Avastar disable the option Use Bind Pose (in the Collada export panel)

Super easy to use. In fact there is no big difference to previous versions of Avastar.

Con:

The Appearance Sliders which control the edited bones can no longer transform the bone locations. For example when you edit the eye bones in your Rig, then you no longer can edit the eye distance or eye depth with the appearance sliders in SL. However Scaling will still work as before.

You must create your own poses, gestures and animations for your meshes.

Best usage:

This works best when your Rig edits modify the Rig into something other than a human rig (Quadruped, Fish, Elefant, alien, etc…)

Transfer with Bind Pose

In this case your meshes will use the Original SL T pose, but we also transfer the Bind pose information along with the Rig. This allows us to treat for example an A-posed mesh exactly like a T posed mesh. this is true for Blender and in SL.

Pro:

All appearance sliders remain intact and provide exactly the same functionality as with the System Character (although the appearance is modified in a different way compared to the System character (Mesh uses Skeletal Animation, System character uses Morph Targets)

Bone translations still work with the Appearance Sliders.

You do not need to create your own special animations as your rig is compatible with the SL default Rig. So all animation that have been made for the system character should also work for your mesh when you use Bind pose

Con:

You need to set an option (Use Bind Pose) in Avastar in order to get the data correctly exported.

When the Bind pose differs a lot from the original rig (like you added rotations, translations and Scale to your bind pose) then the results begin to become distorted. You need to do some experiments with your particular rig to see if it works with Bind pose or not.

Best usage:

This works best on Rigs which are very similar to the original SL Rig, and which have been constructed by using only bone rotations from the Original Rig. Our example above (the A pose rig) is a perfect situation where the Bind pose is clearly the best options to use.

The Update/Transfer Tool (change)

The Update/Transfer Tool has 2 purposes:

Update an older Avastar Rig to work with the most recent Avastar versions.

Transfer a non Avastar Rig into an Avastar Rig.

The mode of operation is automatically determined.

Note: We have fully rewritten the update Tool based on your feedback. We believe that it now works much more robust and covers more scenarios as before. However we have not been able to make this tool work seamless for every possible case.

Below you find the brief description of the Panel parameters and when to use them.

The Update Tool

The Update is a notoriously complicated task for a computer. We know that we can not support all possible cases. But you can do a bit to ensure your models can be updated with the original preserved as much as possible. Here is a list of recommended activities before you update your rig:

Ensure the Avastar IK is disabled on Legs and Hands

Take care that the current active Action is Empty (no keyframes in it)

Important: Please review the Update tool options carefully and make sure you understand what each option does. The preset values are not always what you want! If in doubt, make a few tests to see which option settings match best in your case!

Note: In principle Avastar can handle poses during update. But when you place your rig into restpose before updating, then you can see much better if the update changed anything on your rig or your meshes.

The Tools Pannel Sections

This tool applies for Avastar Rigs that have been made with an older version of Avastar. Avastar tries to figure out the optimal option setting for this case. But you probably need to check on your own if the settings are correct.

Note: The look of the Update Tool Panel can vary depending on what kind of Rig you have. The image aside shows options for one of the most complex human development kits that we inspected during the development of Avastar-2. In most cases the panel is much less cluttered!

After you have set the options, you click on the Update Rig Button to start the migration.

The update options are briefly described below.

The Update panel. Please note the Snowflake Icon. Ensure you know its purpose before you use it. Read more in the options section.

Section 1: Target Rig Option (Basic or Extended)

Basic: Update to a Legacy Rig and use only the old Second Life Bones

Extended: Update to a Bento Rig and add all new Bones added in the Bento Project

Note: You can update an old legacy Rig to a Bento Rig, or you can downgrade a Bento Rig to an old Legacy Rig. Please also take attention to the option Rebuild missing Bones (see below)

Section 2: Alignment Options

The following options appear when Avastar-2 detects an inconsistency:

COG Align to: The head of the COG Bone must be aligned either to the mPelvis Deform Bone or to the Pelvis Control bone. We need this to provide a consistent behavior with the Appearance sliders.

Rig Align to: In Avastar-2 the Rig’s Deform Rig (blue bones) and its Control rig (green bones) must match. We need this to provide a consistent behavior with the Appearance sliders. You can decide if the update tool matches the control bones to the deform bones or vice versa.

Origin Align to: The Origin Bone and the Rig’s Pivot point (Object Origin) must match. You can decide if you want to move the Origin bone to the Pivot point or if you want to moive the pivot point to the origin. (This option is not shown in the image above)

Section 3: Update options

Enforce SL Roll

Avastar takes care that the Bone Rolls are the same as for the Standard Second Life Rig.

Note: This option is somewhat experimental. I am not sure if we really need it here. You may play with it and see if you can find situations where you see a difference.

Attach Sliders

Ensure the sliders are attached during the Upgrade.

Important Note: Avastar-2 does not use Shape keys to store the slider information. So you will no longer find Shape keys when you enable the Sliders.

Apply Rot&Scale

Rebuild missing Bones

You need to enable this option when you want to “auto fix” your rig and ensure that all Avastar Bones are present in the updated rig.

Note: If you upgrade from a legacy Rig to a Bento Rig, then you must enable this option. Otherwise the Bento Bones are not generated.

Rebuild Avastar Meshes

You might have removed the Avastar meshes from your Rig, but now you might want them back. In that case just enable this option. Then Avastar will add the System meshes back to the Rig.

Section 4: Modified Joints

Keep Joint Edits

You need to enable this option when your mesh contains edited Bones (has joint offsets). This will setup the data that is necessary to later drive the Shape sliders properly for your modified rig.

Generate IK Offsets (likely to be removed): This adds offset information to the IK Bones. This can be used to make the IK bones adjust better to the rig when appearance sliders are used. However this is an ongoing development and might be unreliable. Use only for experimenting

Generate tail offsets: Joint offsets are only defined for the Bone heads. This option adds offsets also for the tails. However this is just a display thing. So you can enable it or disable it. In either case it should have no influence on your exported meshes.

Show Offsets (in experimental settings)

When you enable this option then Avastar draws grease pencil lines to indicate the locations of the Bones in the T Posed Rig compared to the bone locations in your edited rig.

Note:This is only for debugging purposes and normally is not needed for your daily work. The feature only exists when you use Blender 2.78 or newer.

The Snowflake Icon (in the update Rig button)

Sometimes you will find that your meshes get distorted or displaced by the Rig Update. In this case you may want to enable the Snowflake icon: This will

Apply the Armature to your meshes (unbind)

Update the Rig

Bind the meshes back to the updated rig.

This should avoid any bone roll issues. But beware: Enabling this option will use the current pose as new Restpose! So please be sure that you set your rig into Restpose before you do the update!

Section 5: Rig Information

Just from visual inspection iot is often not clear what exactly will be updated. So we added a bit of information about the Rig and its dependent meshes. You find this information at the bottom of the panel.

The Transfer Tool

The Transfer Tool is very similar to the Update tool. But this one converts non Avastar Rigs into Avastar Rigs. Basically it works the same way as the update tool, but instead of updating an older Avastar Rig to the newest Rig Version, it now creates a new Avastar Rig based on the original (source rig).

This tool applies for Second Life compatible Rigs which have been made with another tool (not with Avastar).
Avastar tries to figure out the optimal option setting for this case. But you probably need to check on your own if the settings are correct.

After you have set the options, you click on the Convert to Avastar Rig Button to start the migration.

Finding the correct parameters can be somewhat tedious because there is a lot of freedom in how Rigs can be created. We tried to find a good parameter set that allows to migrate as many rig types as possible.

We even added a Preset section (see at the top of the panel). You may want to add more presets for your own favorite developer kits.

The currently available update options are briefly described below.

Transfer Presets

We have collected some ready made Panel presets so that you can setup this panel with 2 clicks and do not need to worry about the correct option choices.

Here is how you can help us a bit: If you use one of the known Development kits and you found the panel options that match best to the devkit, then we ‘d appreciate when you send us your settings. then we can add them as new Preset to the list.

Note: The presets are just option settings inside of Avastar. The presets do not include any detailed information about the devkit except those general options (see below).

Pose Position & Rest Position

In most cases you may want to transfer your rig in the Current Restpose. So you normally choose Rest Positionhere. However there are cases where you want to use the current pose position as you reference (bind pose).

We can not tell when to use the one or the other. If you are in doubt, use Rest Position.

Source Rig Type (SL, Manuellab, Generic, Avastar)

Right now we support 4 RigTypes:

SL: This is a plain Second Life compatible Rig (looking sidewards, having only SL Bones and/or Bento Bones)

Manuellab: This is a Rig that was generated by Manuellab. We have tested this with Manuellab 1.4 but older Manuellab releases down to Manuellab 1.1 should work as well.

Generic: Reserved for future usage

Avastar: For Avastar Rig Updates. You should never need to use this option because Avastar usually can figure out by its own when to update an Avastar rig, and when to migrate an SL compatible Rig. However for very old Avastar Rigs Avastar might not recognize the rig type. So you might need to make use of this option in very rare cases.

Target Rig Option (Basic or Extended)

Extended: Migrate to a Bento Rig and add all new Bones from the Bento Project

Dummies

You can specify if you want to keep, hide, or remove the Avastar dummies from the Avastar Rig.

Note: In most cases you will want to delete or hide the Avastar meshes.

With Joints (PIVOT/POS)

You need to enable this option when your mesh contains edited Bones (has joint offsets). This will setup the data that is necessary to later drive the Shape sliders properly for your modified rig.

When you migrate a foreign devkit to Avastar then you need to know if the Creator has used the System Character Rig (the POS Rig) or the Mesh character Rig (the PIVOT Rig). Those two rigs are very similar but if you take the wrong choice here, your final mesh attachments (clothes) do not precisely match to the mesh character in Second Life.

If the Crator of the devkit can not provide this information (using PIVOT or POS) then they probably used the POS Rig. You might need to experiment a bit in order to find the correct value.

Use Bind Pose

When the imported Rig is mostly human and does not differ much from the SL Default rig (only by bone rotations, like for example the Belleza devkit) then your best bet is to enable the use bind pose option. Because then all Appearance Sliders behave very similar (but not identical!) to the default system character.

Note: You can enable/disable this option at any time later (in the Pose Panel)

Enforce SL Bone Ends

When you have imported a devkit from a Collada file, then the bone ends of the imported bones are not defined. In this case Blender creates some fictive bone ends based on some reasonable assumptions. While the bone orientation of the end bones does not matter a lot, you may want to match those end bones to the corresponding SL Bones.

This option ensures the lengths of the end bones (especially the Fitted mesh bones) are adjusted according to the SL settings.

Note: This option may be cosmetic. Actually it should not matter if you enable this option. If you are in doubt, keep this option enabled.

Enforce SL Bone Roll

Take care the the Bone Rolls are the same as for the Standard Second Life Rig.

Note: This option is somewhat experimental. I am not sure if we really need it here. You may play with it and see if you can find situations where you see a difference.

Show Offsets (in Experimental mode)

When you enable this option then Avastar draws grease pencil lines to indicate the locations of the Bones in the T Posed Rig compared to the bone locations in your edited rig.

Note: This is only for debugging purposes and normally is not needed for your daily work. The feature only exists when you use Blender 2.78 or newer.

Attach Sliders

Ensure the sliders are attached after the update is done.

Important Note: Avastar-2 does not use Shape keys to store the slider information. So you will no longer find Shape keys when you enable the Sliders.

Apply Rot & Scale

Apply Rotation and Scale to your Meshes before migrating the Rig to Avastar.

Male

Bind your meshes to the Avastar Male rig (instead of the female rig)

The Snowflake Icon

Sometimes you will find that your meshes get distorted by the Rig Update. In this case the most secure way to upgrade is by temporary removing the objects from the rig (unbind) then update the Rig, and in the final step bind the meshes to the updated rig. This should avoid any bone roll issues.

Note: Enabling the Snowflake Icon lets Avastar do the just described “secure update” for you. But beware: Normally this option shall not be needed and be kept disabled!

Working with Developer Kits (new)

Mesh Developer Kits have become a major part of a Second Life Creator’s challenges. The most challenging part of this is that the devkits often are not made for Blender and certainly they never have been made especially for Avastar. However we want to support the usage of Devkits as good as possible. This is where the Migration Tool comes into play (see previous chapters above)

At the end it all boils down to a migration task that takes a devkit and transforms it into an Avastar Rig that uses the devkit meshes. And this task can be done in two ways:

Creator made Devkit templates

A Devkit Creator may decide to create a Devkit Template made for Avastar. This is a blend file that may contain the devkit meshes ready atached to the Avastar Rig. This blend file can be used as blueprint for the users. In this case the entire work of conversion and testing is done once by the devkit maker and then provided to the Devkit users.

The distribution of the devkit template is done by the devkit creator.

User made Devkit templates

We understand that not every Devkit creator can provide templates for Blender and or for Avastar. Because of this we have made the creation of template files very easy for the users. All you need to create a devkit template is:

Avastar-2.0-beta29 or newer

A legal copy of the Devkit Rig & associated Devkit Meshes

A bit of basic understanding about rigging for Second Life

The basic workflow is (provided you have Avastar already installed):

Select the devkit rig with its meshes attached

Open the Avastar Migration Tool (see image)

Figure out the various option settings

You can store your settings as Migration Preset.

Convert and save the result as simple blend file

This blend file can then be used as your template file.

Tip for Creators:

You can distribute this blend file to your customers. The blend file content is made by you and you can distribute it as you like.

Or you can send us your Migration Preset. We will add it then to the factory presets at the top of the Transfer tool (see image top “My Devkitname”)

Devkits that are provided as .dae files

We are still working on devkit support. The list on the right side indicates where we are at the moment.

Note: TMP can only be supported by us after we have added a new feature into the Blender Collada Importer, see for details:

If the devkit is distributed in Collada files, then you first need to import the Collada data into Blender. You have to take special care here:

When you open the Collada Importer by using

File -> Import -> Collada

Then you find an Operator Redo Panel at the bottom left of the File selection Window. There you find 3 options. Please ensure that all 3 options are check marked before you do the update.

If you do not do this, then the Bones at the end of the bone chains will be placed all pointing to the left side.

Once you have imported your devkit from Collada:

Select the Rig of your devkit in Object mode

Proceed to the Avastar Migration Tool

adjust the Migration settings

Convert to Avastar Rig

Now your Devkit should work as An Avastar Rig just as expected.

Most important:

Ask the Creator which Skeleton definition they used:

PIVOT Skeleton

POS Skeleton

When in Doubt assume they used the PIVOT Skeleton

You can store your settings as Migration Preset. You can send this Migration preset to us, so we add it to our distribution.

An Example: The Belleza Devkit

There is nothing special about the Belleza Devkit. It just happens to be an ideal candidate for showing how to do a Migration in practice

Step 1: Import the Devkit

Open the Collada Importer by using

File -> Import -> Collada

Locate the Operator Redo Panel at the bottom left of the File selection Window. There you find 3 options. Please ensure that all 3 options are enabled (check marked)

Import the Model

Note: For Blender 2.77 or older:

The Auto Connect option is not shown in the user interface, but it is always enabled. So nothing to worry about here.

Step 2: Set the Migration options

Open the Tool Shelf and locate the Avastar Tools Panel

We have a ready made Preset for Belleza (see top of panel)
Select this preset

Or alternatively set the options manually as follows:

Source Rig: SL

Target Rig: Basic

Dummies: Hide

With Joints: Enabled

Use POS as Skeleton definition

Use Bind Pose: Enabled

Enforce SL Bone Ends: Enabled

Enforce SL Bone Roll: Enabled

Show Offsets: Disabled

Attach Sliders: Enabled

Apply Rot&Scale: Enabled

Male: Disabled

Snow Flake Icon: Disabled

Now you are ready to click the Button Convert to Avastar Rig.

Belleza Mesh right after Import (Collada)

Belleza Mesh after conversion to Avastar. The 90 degree rotation is on purpose.

Note:
If you are working with another Devkit then you can store your setup into your own Devkit Preset for later reuse. Actually we have done exactly that to define the Belleza Preset.

Dear Developer kit owners:

If you like so, you also can publish your settings or send them to us so that we can add your settings as an additional Preset.

Step 3: Prepare the Export

The Belleza Rig is an ideal Candidate for been used with Bind Pose. Just to remind you: You can enable or disable the Bind Pose option at any time.

Open the Settings Panel

Ensure you have set Advanced Settings

Open the Pose Panel

Enable the option Use Bind Pose

Step 4: Check the Sliders (optional, out of curiosity)

Open the Appearance Panel

Select the Torso Section

Check how the arm length changes with the slider values

Now make an experiment:

Disable the Use Bind Pose option
Right above the Appearance sliders

Now check how the Sliders work totally different on the Arms

Gotcha? Perfect!

Arms in Bind Pose mode

In Bind Pose mode the arm length changes as one would expect:

Appearance Slider – 0

Appearance Slider – 100

Arms in Joint Offset mode

In Joint Offset mode the arms are shifted sideways instead of lengthened along the limb:

Appearance Slider – 0

Appearance Slider – 100

Important: If you do not understand why the Appearance Sliders work different when you have enabled use Bind pose, then please take a moment and find out about the Slider behavior. It has been largely discussed in the SL Forums and in the SL Wiki…

Step 5: Check the export

Now do a regular Avastar Mesh export and see how your mesh behaves (you can use Aditi for testing). We tested it as follows:

Upload the Belleza Devkit file to SL

Upload the Avastar export to SL

Wear both meshes and

inspec them in Wireframe mode

Avastar and Belleza show an almost perfect match when inspected in wireframe mode

Batch Import for BVH Animations

We have added a File importer for BVH animations which have been made for Second Life:

File -> Import -> SL Animation (bvh)

This call creates a new Avastar character and loads the BVH animation as default action (into the timeline)

Note: You can select multiple BVH files at once and import them all in one go. You find all animations as separate actions only the last imported action is placed into the timeline (as default action)

Note: If your animations are not ready made for Second Life, then you still need to use the Retarget Tool like in previous releases.

Shape copy/paste operators (appearance panel)

The appearance sliders now have a “quick shape copy/paste” function. This can be useful when you do some work with different slider configurations and quickly want to store your current shape for later reuse.

Note: the cut/past also works between different Armatures.

Some more info in Update Panel

After talking to the Avastar chat group we added a bit of extra information below the upgrade Rig button, see image.

(un)-Locking Pose Bones

SL Bone Rot

By default the Deform Bones are all controled by the Control bones. This option disables the lock for usage during weighting.

Control Bone Loc

By default Control bones can not be moved separately. This option disconnects the Control bones for translation animation.

Volume Bone Loc

By default Volume Bones are locked to the Deform Bones. This options unlocks them for animation.

Animated Origin stops export

Animating the Origin bone in Blender is perfectly OK. But the Origin animation is not exported to Secondlife.

However we found that many users simply missed this fact and happily export their animations and wondering why the animations play different in Secondlife compared to Blender.

Now we have added a strict rule, which enforces you to either mute the Origin channel (in the dope sheet) or delete the Origin channel from the action (also in the dope sheet). You will see that as soon as you mute or delete the Origin channel, the red alert goes away and you can export again.

Workflows

Editing bones:

If you are editing the rig while you have posed the rig in pose mode, then the locations of the edit bones do not match with the locations of the pose bones. This is so because the bone editor always works in restpose.

There is nothing wrong at all with that. However if you want to have the pose bones at the same locations as the edit bones at all times, then you must reset the pose to restpose before you edit the bones

The workflow:

go to pose mode

reset all bone poses (ALT-R ALT-G ALT-S)

go to edit mode

edit your bones

snap as required

go to pose mode

Important: Avastar now enforces an alignment of the control bones and the mBones. Because of that the function “Store edited Joints” now has an additional icon (double headed arrow) that allows you to predefine if you want to snap the (green) Animation bones to the (blue) Deform Bones, or the other way.

Tip: If your Rig snaps back to its previous state when you store your edited joints, then it is very likely that you have set the snap direction wrong. In that case:

Step back in history by using CTRL-Z

Change the snap direction (the double headed arrow in the operator button)

Try again. It should now work

Tip: Editing the Animation bones and the Deform Bones at the same time is not supported. And we will not support this in the future, because we simply can not find any way how this might work nicely.

Missing Features

Following features are still planned to be added to the upcoming Release, but have not been finished by now.

Bulk animation Export

Known Issues with Avastar 2 RC2/2.0-40

These are the open issues since begin of testing. The fixes will become available as soon as possible.

TMP Conversion not working as expected(Open)

TMP has edited the scales of the Collision Volume bones. Unfoirtunately this information gets lost when we import a rig from FBX and Collada. This is caused by a missing feature in Blender. TMP can not be fully supported until this issue is fixed in Blender.

wip: remove apply of stored shape when disconnecting a mesh from the sliders (needs more testing)

new:remove joint offset data during update when sliders are disabled

fix: Modifed startup Log level from DEBUG to WARNING

fix: Use spine improved bone controllers

new: Added support for custom bind pose to support TMP and other developer kits with non standard bind poses (needs Blender 2.79)

imp:Added armature properties to store the spine fold state for upper and lower spine

do not auto update library objects

fix for the welding modifier that is needed after a blender fix (check daily builds after 27-01-2017)

fix:partial shape reset did no longer work after adding fast exit from updateShape when recursive called

Fixed in Avastar 2.0-beta31

clean: updated templates to 2.0-31

fix: IK Settings are now preserved during Rig Update

new: Add store joints to plain vanilla rig (clean up from damage)

new: Initial support for working without shape sliders

fix: Some Rigs broke during upgrade

experimental: fully disabled sliders for creature makers

Fixed in Avastar 2.0-beta30

initial support for working entirely without shape sliders (work in progress)

fix:create a warning when slider shape data is broken, instead of stopping the updateShape

fix: export mesh destroyed mesh Normals

imp: avoid error display in console when creating new Avastar without action

imp: Animation export is now disabled when Origin is animated

fix: Export animations with references to bones outside of current rig failed

Fixed in Avastar 2.0-beta29

Keying Origin should not be exported in Animations.

Export animation with references to bones outside of current rig failed

Export only deform bones with parent hierarchy did not export correctly

Export collada exported mesh always in current pose
The exporter now takes care of the “Use Bind Pose” option:
Use Bind Pose disabled: Export in Restpose
Use Bind Pose enabled: Export using current pose as bind pose

The preference setting for Alter to restpose was removed (we no longer need it)

2017-01-06 Avastar-2.0-25

Fixes found during first testing phase (todo)

2016-12-31 Avastar-2.0-24

This is a major rewrite of the Avastar Core functions in order to support a true Bind Pose. All attempts to keep with the system in Avastar-2.0-23 lead to major problems.

Changeset (todo)

2016-09-19 Avastar-2.0-23

2016-09-19 fix: issues with renaming rigtype to rigType
2016-09-19 fix: remove bones from slider-bone map
if scale and offset both are (0,0,0)
which means 'defined but no influence'
which actually is a mistake in the definition files

2016-09-19 Avastar-2.0-22

2016-09-19 imp: Added selector for rigtype to the shape import tool
2016-09-18 new: Now you also can customize the add -> avastar menu entries
to create a rig based on POS attributes in the skeleton definition
check the Avastar adoon preferences panel
2016-09-18 fix: improved printing of slider to bone mapping
2016-09-17 imp: Single Joint offsets can now be removed from the user interface (Appearance pannel)
2016-09-17 new: Added ability to only delete one single joint offset (needed for user interface)
2016-09-17 fix: Migrate from foreign rig to Avastar now also
supports the migration of joint positions
2016-09-17 wip: retargeting tool progress counter now shows
the timeframe on which it is currently working
2016-09-16 new: Added improved display of joint offset bones
2016-09-16 fix: Added spine visibility to EDIT Preset in rig display panel
2016-09-15 !!!: Improved Rig Update and Rig Transfer. (made naming consistent):
Now use BASE instead of CLASSIC for the old style rig)

2016-08-25 Avastar-2.0-17

2016-08-25 upd: templates for avastar 2.0-alpha 7
2016-08-25 fix: Layout of armature info pannel
2016-08-25 imp: Order of Avastar pannels
appearance now on top, info pannel now at bottom
2016-08-25 new: Added convenience operator for converting
Avastar mesh to custom mesh on the fly
2016-08-25 imp: Volume bones now deforming by default
2016-08-25 fix: joint offset calculation now based on the mBones,
makes it much easier to keep the rig geometry intact
2016-08-25 imp: take care to export also unweighted bones in the middle
when they have joint positions. Otherwise we can get distortions
2016-08-24 fix: the hover attribute was used for toe offset and origin hover.
Separated this into the 2 attributes 'hover' and 'toe_hover'
2016-08-23 fix: spine controller now preserves spine state when shape changes
2016-08-23 fix: calculate bone positions now more robust
2016-08-23 fix: avoid asymmetric shift of skeleton due to hover calculations
not sure if that works out in general
2016-08-23 fix: unweighted bones with joint positions are now treated
like weighted bones and also exported to collada
2016-08-18 fix: for joint offset calculator with arbitrary slider settings
still issues near hands when sliders not in SL restpose
2016-08-17 imp: Added log info for exported bone sets
2016-08-17 fix: joint position support for restpose
2016-08-14 fix: joints now defined relative to original joints (wip)
2016-08-14 fix: Avastar now has a precise restpose
SL Restpose Skeleton.
Various edits to better suport joint offsets(wip)
2016-08-14 fix: Issues with eyes in lad definition
2016-08-13 fix: for eye scaling
2016-08-06 fix: delete all joints operator now really deletes all joints
2016-08-06 new: now deleting orphaned joint entries
when bones are deleted, no longer throws an exception.
2016-08-06 new: add option to only remove selected joint offsets
2016-08-06 fix: joint position now takes current joint offset
into account (to get wysiwig behavior)
2016-08-04 fix: avoid raising error when rendering
2016-08-04 upd: version number of template files

2016-08-04 Avastar-2.0-16

2016-08-04 fix:sliders did not work for eyes and finger tips

2016-08-03 Avastar-2.0-14

This is still a work in progress update. But we have hope
that most of the big issues have been fixed.

Super important

The Rig Update Tool has not yet been updated!
We keep this task for the very end after all other
known issues have been fixed.

Important changes

Avastar alpha-5 uses the most recent release candidate Skeleton

We have separated the Rig Display panel from the new Rig Config Panel. The idea was to make things easier.

More complete support for Sliders with Joint position.
IMPORTANT: Please edit joint positions only when the rig is in SL Rest pose (white stickman icon in Appearance sliders) Otherwise the joints move around in unexpected ways. Once you have finished your joint editing, you can use the sliders to check how the model behaves later in SL.

The easiest way to edit joint positions is to work in pose mode, then in the tool shelf -> Avastar -> Rig Config “Snap Rig to Pose”. This automatically calculates the joint offsets. this step is needed to support the sliders

Remove Joint edits tool works reliable only when the sliders are in SL Rest pose (white stickman icon)

The Collada exporter no longer provides the “with joints” option Avastar now can do the export without advise. We added a few moree options into the advanced section of the Collada exporter to get more control over what exactly gets exported (most usage for tool exchange stuff, not so important for Export to Target (Second Life)

Known Issues

Joint position editor creates odd results when used when thE sliders are NOT in SL Rest pose (white stickman icon)

rig Update tool does not yet work (see above)

Animation importer does not yet know about the Bento bones

BVH exporter has not been updated to support Bento Bones

We have disabled most of the face and hand meta rig stuff as we first want to get the rig itself working

2016-06-29 Avastar-2.0-13

2016-06-29 fix: classic skeleton was setup wrong
now takes the definition from skeleton_2

2016-06-27 Avastar-2.0-12

Important changes:

custom meshes no longer create shape keys when sliders are enabled

Sliders now also work when your mesh is in edit mode

The joint position editing is almost ready to use (see note below)

Updated weights for the head mesh. Eye lids now should work much smoother

All recent changes to the skeleton and lad are included

Known issues:

When you create a new Avastar character, then its head reacts to
the sliders as if it is a custom mesh.

The joint position editor has difficulties with the bone end points
of the leaf bones (bones at end of bone chains)

When you edit a mesh (add/remove verts) while sliders are enabled,
this can lead to very odd behavior when you change back to object
mode. Best is to disable sliders when you attempt to add/remove
verts. Moving verts around should be ok. Don’t forget to bake
changes into the mesh before you leave edit mode.

when you disable/enable the sliders it can happen that the eyes
pop out of the face. When that happens, then in most cases it
is sufficient to enable the sliders again. Then the eyes snap back
where they belong.

Note for joint position editing:

The joint position editor is not strictly necessary to define joint offsets. For now an alternative way is :

disable sliders and keep them disabled!

Edit your skeleton as needed

when you export, then export without joint positions. This will
export the skeleton as it is. SL figures out on its own which bones
need to get joint offsets.

when the joint position editor is ready it will become possible to use the sliders AND define joint positions.